There are electronic cameras known in the related art that record electronic images (digital images) captured via an image-capturing element into a recording medium such as a memory card. Since such electronic images obtained by converting image signals to electrical signals are suited to the electronic processing such as communication, there are also digital image systems known in the related art that achieve communication among users of portable digital image apparatuses such as electronic cameras having a communication function and portable telephones with an image display function by allowing the portable digital image apparatuses to transmit and receive photographed electronic images, and to reproduce and erase the transmitted/received images via telephone lines or the Internet. Since faster and larger-capacity communication lines have become available, it has become increasingly occurring for individuals to exchange images of relatively large data volumes by using portable telephones and the like.
However, the following problems must be addressed with regard to the digital image apparatuses and the digital image systems in the related art described above.
When images are transmitted and received frequently between individuals via a communication line by using compact portable digital image apparatus such as PDA (personal digital assistant), portable telephones with an image display function and the like, the storage capacity of the image storage memory in each of the digital image apparatuses becomes in a state of shortage and, as a result, it is necessary to frequently perform processing for extracting necessary images among the images stored in the image storage memory on a temporary basis, transmitting those images that will be needed later to the outside for backup and erasing unnecessary images. However, the digital image apparatuses and the digital image systems in the related art do not allow such processing to be efficiently and quickly executed.
In addition, if too many images are packed into the image storage memory of a compact portable digital image apparatus for personal use, it becomes necessary to perform numerous complicated operations and spend a great deal of time to execute the processing such as reproduction, transmission and erasure of a selected image and thus, spontaneous and casual communication in which images are exchanged is not possible. Furthermore, if all the images are processed in a batch in order to simplify the processing such as image reproduction, erasure and transmission, there arises a risk of erroneous operations which will result in an image other than a desired image being inadvertently reproduced, erased or transmitted.
While a compact portable digital image apparatus for personal use is often shared by a plurality of users, full security is not always assured for the individual users pertaining to image operations for saving, reproducing, erasing, transmitting and receiving images exchanged between specific individuals. This gives rise to a risk of another person viewing an image received by a specific user, and also that of an t image transmitted to a specific recipient being transferred to a stranger, and these risks are holding back communication achieved via images from realizing its full potential.
In addition, due to a lack of sufficient-user-interface information available at the time of image transmission and reception when images are exchanged between individuals as described above, images cannot be transmitted/received efficiently (with respect to the communication time, the transmission fee), and it is often a slow process to select various settings such as the correct image recipient and the images to be exchanged. At the same time, it is frequently an inefficient process in the sense that a single image is often transmitted twice to a single recipient unnecessarily to cost the sender an unnecessarily high transmission fee.
Moreover, when images are exchanged between individuals, the sender, the photographer or the owner of the receive image cannot be verified in an efficient and intuitive manner as necessary and it takes a great deal of time to verify the sender, the photographer or the owner.